Sixty-Seven Years of Land-Use Change in Southern Costa Rica

Zahawi, Rakan A.; Duran, Guillermo; Kormann, Urs G.

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0143554

Cited by 72 publications

(113 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…In our Southern Costa Rican study area, only approximately 30% of the original forest cover persists-mostly in scattered fragments surrounded by pasture and coffee plantations [21]. However, narrow wooded corridors are common in the study region, and one-third of forest fragments are interconnected by narrow wooded corridors [21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 84%

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Corridors restore animal-mediated pollination in fragmented tropical forest landscapes

et al. 2016

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Tropical biodiversity and associated ecosystem functions have become heavily eroded through habitat loss. Animal-mediated pollination is required in more than 94% of higher tropical plant species and 75% of the world's leading food crops, but it remains unclear if corridors avert deforestation-driven pollination breakdown in fragmented tropical landscapes. Here, we used manipulative resource experiments and field observations to show that corridors functionally connect neotropical forest fragments for forest-associated hummingbirds and increase pollen transfer. Further, corridors boosted forest-associated pollinator availability in fragments by 14.3 times compared with unconnected equivalents, increasing overall pollination success. Plants in patches without corridors showed pollination rates equal to bagged control flowers, indicating pollination failure in isolated fragments. This indicates, for the first time, that corridors benefit tropical forest ecosystems beyond boosting local species richness, by functionally connecting mutualistic network partners. We conclude that small-scale adjustments to landscape configuration safeguard native pollinators and associated pollination services in tropical forest landscapes.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…), ranging from less than 1 to more than 1000 ha in size surrounded by pastures (more than 90%), coffee plantations and human settlements. Details are given in [21].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Corridors restore animal-mediated pollination in fragmented tropical forest landscapes

et al. 2016

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“…This research is being conducted in the rugged, hilly countryside of Coto Brus, a canton of Costa Rica, across agricultural landscapes spanning 700-1,350 m elevation. The region, originally tropical premontane wet forest, was heavily deforested in the 1960s and early 1970s (45). Today, the countryside comprises crop fields (mostly of coffee and diversified gardens), pasture, and trees scattered through crop fields and pastures, in strips bordering streams and property lines, and in forest elements of variable sizes (typically 0.05-100 ha).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying and sustaining biodiversity in tropical agricultural landscapes

Mendenhall

Shields-Estrada

Krishnaswami

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

101

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Decision-makers increasingly seek scientific guidance on investing in nature, but biodiversity remains difficult to estimate across diverse landscapes. Here, we develop empirically based models for quantifying biodiversity across space. We focus on agricultural lands in the tropical forest biome, wherein lies the greatest potential to conserve or lose biodiversity. We explore two questions, drawing from empirical research oriented toward pioneering policies in Costa Rica. First, can remotely sensed tree cover serve as a reliable basis for improved estimation of biodiversity, from plots to regions? Second, how does tropical biodiversity change across the land-use gradient from native forest to deforested cropland and pasture? We report on understory plants, nonflying mammals, bats, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. Using data from 67,737 observations of 908 species, we test how tree cover influences biodiversity across space. First, we find that fine-scale mapping of tree cover predicts biodiversity within a taxon-specific radius (of 30-70 m) about a point in the landscape. Second, nearly 50% of the tree cover in our study region is embedded in countryside forest elements, small (typically 0.05-100 ha) clusters or strips of trees on private property. Third, most species use multiple habitat types, including crop fields and pastures (to which 15% of species are restricted), although some taxa depend on forest (57% of species are restricted to forest elements). Our findings are supported by comparisons of 90 studies across Latin America. They provide a basis for a planning tool that guides investments in tropical forest biodiversity similar to those for securing ecosystem services.conservation science | countryside biogeography | ecosystem services | extinctions | species-area relationship W hat is the potential of sustaining biodiversity and ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes? The future of biodiversity hinges on the answer, given the limited scope for expanding protected areas. Moreover, the generation and delivery of many vital ecosystem services occurs on local to regional scales in socialecological systems where people make their livelihoods through cropping, grazing, forestry, and other rural activities. The answer is incomplete, but appears to be "high" (e.g., refs. 1-3). A further question, however, is how can this potential for conservation into the Anthropocene can be realized, with land use, other dimensions of global change, and rates of extinction intensifying rapidly worldwide (4-6) and weak institutions for protecting the global commons (7)?Efforts to secure biodiversity and ecosystem services in rural landscapes are expanding and becoming more sophisticated (e.g., refs. 8 and 9). In the case of ecosystem services, both scientific and policy support for targeting investments have advanced rapidly (10, 11). In China, for example, 200 million people presently are being paid to engage in conservation and restoration activities; since 2000 these investments have resulted in many ecosystem servi...

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“…However, the drop in the international price of coffee led to the replacement of coffee plantations to other land uses (mainly pastures) or their abandonment, which allowed natural regeneration (Rickert, 2005). Currently, the landscape is largely deforested and characterized by a mosaic of pastures, agriculture and small remnants of secondary forests concentrated along steep slope conditions and near rivers (Zahawi, Duran, & Kormann, 2015). LCBS maintains the largest remaining fragment of primary forest in the immediate region.…”

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Seedling growth and survival of five tree species in secondary forests and adjacent pastures in the montane rain forests of southern Costa Rica

Ley-López

Ávalos

Chacón‐Madrigal

2016

RBT

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Successful forest restoration in tropical environments is limited by the paucity of studies on the initial establishment and early survival requirements of seedlings of most native tropical tree species under disturbed conditions. Here, we evaluated the initial growth responses and the regeneration potential of seedlings of five tree species native to Costa Rica (Hasseltia floribunda, Inga densiflora, Persea americana, Tapirira mexicana and Trichilia pittieri). Seedlings were grown in secondary forests and adjacent open pastures under contrasting conditions of light availability. We quantified seedling growth, survival and herbivory from August 2010 to August 2011 on a monthly basis, and measured differences in leaf mass per area (LMA) at the end of the experiment. We found significant variation in growth responses between the understory of secondary forests and pastures. Growth in height was highest in pastures across all species, with I. densiflora, P. americana and T. mexicana showing the most striking differences. In contrast, H. floribunda and T. pittieri did not show differences in diameter growth between environments. Except for T. mexicana, herbivory increased throughout the experiment in all the species. Herbivory increased faster in pastures for H. floribunda and T. pittieri and showed higher rates in the forest understory for I. densiflora and P. americana. Seedling survival showed significant differences for all species across environments. Survival of H. floribunda and I. densiflora was higher in secondary forests, whereas the other species showed higher survival in pastures. LMA showed higher values in the pastures across all species, showing that individuals exposed to high light conditions had great photosynthetic rate and great leaf construction capacity. Due to their rapid growth and high survival, I. densiflora and T. mexicana showed great potential to restore abandoned pastures and secondary forests. Increasing our knowledge on the response of seedlings under disturbed conditions in tropical ecosystems is critical for improving the restoration of altered environments by matching the ecological amplitude of native species with specific environmental conditions. Rev. Biol. Trop. 64 (4): 1565-1583. Epub 2016 December 01.

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Sixty-Seven Years of Land-Use Change in Southern Costa Rica

Cited by 72 publications

References 66 publications

Corridors restore animal-mediated pollination in fragmented tropical forest landscapes

Corridors restore animal-mediated pollination in fragmented tropical forest landscapes

Quantifying and sustaining biodiversity in tropical agricultural landscapes

Seedling growth and survival of five tree species in secondary forests and adjacent pastures in the montane rain forests of southern Costa Rica

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